Continental Connections

While Europe's budget airlines continue to generate buzz with rock-bottom promotional fares, the Continent's railways are staging a quiet revolution. New high-speed trains—for now, mostly in Western Europe—are pristine, spacious, and comfortable. Trains cruise at upwards of 200 miles per hour and deliver passengers from city to city (downtown to downtown) in less than half the time it took before high-speed track was laid—and often as fast or even faster than the trip can be done by plane.

Adding to the appeal, train travel is usually cheaper where there is no low-cost carrier serving the route. And as travelers become increasingly conscious of the carbon footprint they leave, high-speed rail's allure gets even stronger. (According to Eurostar, its London-Paris Channel Tunnel train emits ten times less carbon dioxide than an airplane between the two cities.)

Trains also beat out aircraft when it comes to the quality of the time spent traveling. With the train, you hop on and settle into your reserved seat. You can work, read, stretch your legs, use the Internet (many high-speed trains have Wi-Fi), talk on your cell phone, eat in the dining car, and watch the changing landscape. There's none of the hassle and expense of getting to and from the airport, long security lines, or irritating flight delays.

Even so, the railways have been feeling the heat in recent years from the rash of new budget airlines and are fighting back by expanding coverage and stepping up their onboard offerings. On the double-decker French TGV (Train à Grand Vitesse), with stops throughout eastern France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, passengers can choose first-class cars with Christian Lacroix–designed interiors or less expensive iDTGV coaches, where cell phone usage is banned, loud conversations are discouraged, and sleep kits (with inflatable pillows and ear plugs) are for sale. And in the livelier iDzap cars, you can rent Sony Playstations and DVDs, and family areas in second class have built-in board games. On Spain's AVE, reclinable swivel seats are equipped with video and music players.

In December, Railjet, a new high-speed line, will inaugurate service between Budapest and Munich via Vienna, and will continue on to Zurich by 2010. Italy's high-speed TAV service currently runs only between Florence and Naples and a few brief links north. But by the end of next year, it will extend all the way to Milan, making the trip from Rome to Milan in just three hours and easily besting the flying time. When the Paris-Marseille train cut the travel time to three hours in 2001, EasyJet dropped its flights on that route, and since the Paris-Brussels high-speed train cut that trip to one hour and 25 minutes, flights between the two capitals have all but disappeared. As for delays, all the European high-speed rails have varying reimbursement policies if a train is late, but chances are it won't be: High-speed lines are on schedule between 93 and 98 percent of the time.

Extensive passenger research has shown that most business travelers are willing to ride up to four hours by rail before they will opt to fly, while leisure travelers, who like to soak in the scenery, will ride the rails for up to six hours. To ensure that as many destinations as possible meet those criteria, Railteam, an alliance of seven railways in Europe, was established last year. It is working to make cross-border travel more seamless and affordable, with through fares, coordinated arrival and departure times, VIP lounges in major stations, frequent-traveler programs, and a Web site (expected to launch in 2009) where passengers can book tickets with just a few clicks.

The network of dedicated high-speed tracks will triple between now and 2020, by which time Railteam expects 25 million passengers per year to opt for trains. But the real shake-up in high-speed rail service will occur much sooner, with the EU-man-ated liberalization of Europe's passenger train market by 2010. This will mean that all railways will be permitted to use high-speed tracks across international borders, which should result in the kind of stiff competition that created low-cost airlines.